Description

Preface

This build is intended to deliver high-quality gaming in a small, portable PC that you can take to LANs. With that in mind, a mini-ITX case and motherboard have been selected. A generic term for this kinds of PC is Small Form Factor, abbreviated to SFF.

CPU and Cooler

At this budget, we're using the AMD Ryzen 5 1600. The R5 1600 includes a stock cooler, so a 3rd-party cooler isn't necessary. Since we aren't overclocking our CPU, the stock cooler will be sufficient in keeping temperatures acceptable, and it will easily fit inside our case.

Motherboard

We're using a parametric filter to constantly select the best-priced mini ITX motherboard with a B350 chipset. The chipset will you to overclock the CPU, if you would like to, without breaking the bank. The compatibility engine will filter out anything not compatible with the build.

Memory

For our memory, the parametric filter finds the best price on 16GB kits of memory that are within AMD’s recommended specifications. We've limited it to DDR4-2800 and DDR4-3000 as Ryzen CPUs scale well with higher frequency memory. At the current time, using memory rated over 3000mhz is not advised without doing extra research as DIMM support can be hit or miss. AMD is working on releasing additional BIOS updates to add better compatibility for higher frequency memory.

Storage

Since we have the room to do so, we're using a parametric filter to incorporate a 2.5" SSD with at least 500GB. It's often a good idea to download your games prior to attending a LAN, so an SSD with some more space is a good idea. Bumping up to a 1TB SSD or adding an extra 3.5" mechanical drive for these purposes may not be a bad idea, depending on how many games you want to have ready to play as soon as you set up at the LAN. Everyone's storage needs differs, so feel free to change those capacities to your heart's desire.

GPU

For our GPU, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 is one of the best price for performance cards on the market and an absolute powerhouse. The GTX 1070 will provide a consistent 60fps on many demanding games like Battlefield 1) at Ultra at 1080p, and even 1440p for some games like Shadow of War. For those interested in VR, the GTX 1070 will have no problem playing any and and all applications currently on the market.

Due to the high cost of GPUs and low availability, we are using a parametric filter for a GeForce GTX 1070 with a max price set. With patience and vigilance, you can find a video card for around this price, and we want to provide a part list that is more accurate to this concept.

Case

Our parts are going into the small, cube-shaped Thermaltake Core V1 mini ITX desktop case. This case can fit fairly large video cards, and any that are too long will be filtered out by our compatibility engine. It can also fit more PSUs, with a max length of 200mm. The Core V1 also sports 2x USB 3.0 front ports, and it has 3 windows to show of your PC's guts. With this case, you can even fit 2x mechanical drives for extra storage, if you so please. SSDs will fit too, of course.

PSU

For our power supply, we're using a parametric selection of five well-reviewed, fully modular ATX PSUs, all of which are 80+ Gold Certified.

Comments
Sorted by:

If the user doesn’t plan on overclocking, wouldn’t the 1600x be a better purchase due to the XFR technology? I saw in the build that you wouldn’t be overclocking in this guide and thought that suggesting the 1600x I’d this is the user’s mindset could be a good suggestion